Sep 16, 2013 10:39 PM

Hi. We parked near a tree beside an old building in Surrey, UK, and were curious to find out what kind of tree it was... I have taken a couple of tree ident questionaires which didn't provide an answer. It was a big old tree and growing next to a birch - that's about all the clues I can offer really. There were neither fruit or flowers that I could see...

There are quite a few species, and hybrids. Some of them have leaves with more pointed tips, some with more 'bulbous' bases; but some are pretty close to the shape of yours. The venation is about right, too.

thanx i'll double check when i go past tomoro - our first thoughts were that it might be an elm - partly 'cos this area seems fairly well cut off from the rest of the country in many ways - it's in a dip at the top of a hill - we even have our own weather system!

it's nice to think there might be some elm trees that escaped dutch elm disease... oh well - the leaf stem is too even to be an elm - so i'll check to see if it's a lime...

I have to tell you a rather stunning irony: I today plucked a nearly-identical leaf [right down to the wonky right side and odd *tuft* on the tip] from a huge old tree in the front yard of the childhood homeplace of Mary Todd Lincoln--wife of US President Abraham Lincoln--in Lexington, KY, US!

When I went to find out what IT was, I find listings for American Basswood--which, yes, IS a form of Tilia.

It would be curious to me, however, if your tree was a transplant, perhaps a gift from Abe Lincoln to associates in England?